Ever wondered why you see a specific colour too much around you in every product you look to purchase? It’s almost like all brands dip their products in a similar hue. This is the season when Pantone Color Institute reveals its 'Colour of the Year' and for 2024, they have chosen a pale-pinkish peach shade called ‘Peach Fuzz’.

According to the institute, this hue reinforces the importance of human connection. It brings in a feeling of kindness and tenderness, communicating a message of caring, sharing and togetherness with others. Additionally, in a world where everyone chases productivity, Peach Fuzz embraces the moment of pause and self-care.

It is a well-known aspect that colour psychology plays a significant role in branding as colours can evoke specific emotions, convey messages, and influence consumer perceptions. Thus, the emotional aspect is also a large part of the decision-making process for Pantone.

Laurie Pressman, Vice President, Pantone Color Institute shared, “It's a very thoughtful and deliberate process. A lot of consideration and trend analysis goes into deciding the shade. It's a combination of colour trend forecasting at a global level that the team at Pantone does year-round with several different clients for product, packaging, beauty and other industries.”

The launch of the colour exclusively began with Motorola’s edge40 neo and razr40 ultra. The brand believes Peach Fuzz complements Motorola’s mission to make technology more accessible and help consumers use technology to connect intentionally.

Ruben Castano, Head of Customer Experience and Design at Motorola, said, “As technology becomes intertwined with humanity, we trust colour to provide a tool for expression and deeper, more meaningful experiences between consumers and our devices.”

Smartphones are so much more than technology platforms, he highlighted. They are today a personality object for consumers. Therefore, they have also become an object of self-expression, a way for consumers to express their lifestyles. Colour plays a big role even in purchase decisions.”

Motorola is trying to cut through the clutter and come up with a very different position for their product with this partnership, where they will be able to reposition themselves not just as a tech brand but also a fashion and lifestyle brand, Castano said.

Furthermore, PP Jewellers launched their latest ornaments, Brune & Bareskin launched shoes and Kanakavalli curated a line ofkanjivaramsin Peach Fuzz. So, be it a tech brand or an apparel one, be it an established brand name or a new entrant, everyone wants to hop onto the Pantone bandwagon.

“Peach to me is a friendly shade that exuberates fun and energy. It would also go really well in the tech space I personally feel,” shared Vinay Kanchan, Brand Strategist.

But if these same brands launched their products in a light peach shade, without the title of Pantone being attached to it, would they have made it to the headlines? No, say experts.

Kanchan believes it makes immense sense for Pantone to launch a colour on a year-end basis since their entire world is in the realm of colours and it stands true to their brand story. But other brands jumping on this is something he doesn’t understand. The target consumers of Motorola too would be largely unaware of this colour and its relevance.

“Like Oxford launched the word of the year- Rizz. But how many people really know that? Branding and communication should be associations made at the simplest and fastest level possible. When a brand creates layers like this, it defeats the process of branding altogether,” he said.

Samit Sinha, Founder and MD, Alchemist Brand Consulting is of a similar opinion that the whole ‘Colour of the Year’ concept may not have relevance for more than a month. “It has hardly 15 minutes of fame and popularity which brands like to take advantage of while it is in the news.”Nisha Sampath of Bright Angles Consulting added, “Though the traction this whole marketing concept gets is temporary, brands still have a huge scope of building a meaningful narrative around it.”

The larger question is, how much should brands tap into news that's trending?Kanchan highlighted, “Only probably a minute percentage of consumers might know about the whole aspect of this, for most of them it's no great shakes whether the product is just peach or it is ‘The Pantone Color of The Year’.”

On the other hand, Sinha believes for the fashion industry, influencers, designers, celebrities and everyone who works in that ecosystem, the whole colour concept is relevant but for all other industries, it's not so consequential and won't have a long term positive impact on the brand.

He said, “People's opinion on designs and more definitely gets impacted by the colour that represents the mood of the year. But beyond that, it has limited influence on other categories. For others it's more temporary, tactical and short-term benefit, if at all.”

Sampath also thinks another point to note is peach is naturally a colour that doesn't go on everything, which anyway limits the scope of virality. For example, automobiles wouldn’t go well in this shade.

In today’s cluttered market, every brand is desperate to stand apart. But brands should focus on finding a unique brand story to build around which is relevant to their ethos. Riding onto a trend won’t always be as impactful as it seems, concluded Kanchan.